A Cold Night
by Erebos Brando
Summary: Ryuuji was having a good dream, but Taiga could be so unreasonable.


Author's Notes: This one-shot is _intended_ to take place in the earlier days between Taiga and Ryuuji. Where it _could_ fit in exactly, well you can decide for yourself. I'm actually too new to the series to make a fair call. (seen all the eps, but ain't memorized all the details. Thank you animefreak!)

This is definitely the shortest timespan between me discovering a franchise, and deciding to write a fic for it.

Total time: two days.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The day had mostly been uneventful. School, and all that entailed: Class, lunch, interaction with other people (involving some nervousness on someone's part somewhere), end of school, quick trip to the convenience store, then home.

That's where things went awry.

Taiga was annoyed (what else was new?) about yet another encounter with Kawashima that day, and somehow that'd spiralled into yet another self pity moment about Kitamura. After performing his maintenance duties with her, he'd made pork cutlet, just to make her happy/shut her up. It'd worked perfectly.

So he'd thought...

He figured she'd just go home shortly after eating, but no, she hadn't. She'd dragged out his collection of video games and decided to amuse herself with all of them. He'd offered to just lend them all (along with the console) to her but she wouldn't take it, even though he offered several times. She claimed she was in the middle of something important every time. Only great wisdom prevented him from stating the obvious; A save screen is not something important! Though, if she went home she wouldn't get great cooking. Ryuuji was sure that was another reason she wouldn't leave. She practically abused her access to his cooking skills.

With all he put up with...how sad was it that they were, well, he supposed they could be called "friends"? He'd heard the term "Karma's a bitch" but he couldn't remember doing anything really bad in his life. (hey, he only **looked** like a delinquent!) Maybe somewhere along the line Karma would correct itself and he'd get something good out of all this. Though speaking of the term "bitch", and all the times she referred to him as a dog...well, he didn't exactly need to think hard to figure out who was the "bitch" in this relationship.

Eventually he'd bade her goodnight and went to bed, leaving Taiga to her (his!) games. He'd set up his futon and was successful in ignoring the noise. He was having a very pleasant dream, one involving-his eyes suddenly opened. What the hell did he wake up for? He blinked, oh.

Something was poking him. He turned over in his futon, finding a source of much annoyance in his life. From the looks of her she'd been asleep already, but something had woken her up. Inko-chan maybe? He listened but no, wasn't Inko-chan. He figured rather than trying to guess he could just-"Taiga, what is it?"

"It's cold. I can't sleep."

His eyebrows were suddenly raised, along with him. "You've been sleeping here? Why didn't you just go home?"

"I found a spare futon."

That was Taiga for you. She ignored the big part of the question ("why sleep _here_?") and just stated the fact she had something to sleep in. That was good enough reason for her to remain. He just hoped that **this** didn't find its way to the general public.

"Well I can't do anything about the weather."

"Then what about the heating?"

"Yasuko busted it. I've been meaning to get a replacement for the broken part actually. I'll do it tomorrow." He was about to just turn over and go back to sleep when-"Hang on! Your apartment has better heating than mine anyway! Just go home already! It's like a two minute walk!"

Her foot stamped on the floor. "It's raining outside and it's **cold**!"

"Well what do you expect me to do-" He saw a blur of movement, and his instincts warned him of something both inevitable and painful.

-WHAM!-

They were right.

Ryuuji's face was now home to a footprint, not that it could be seen under his hands, which were desperately trying to sooth the pain. He groaned, but knew better than to retaliate. He wanted to keep his teeth, and his eyes, as well as his...well he _hoped_ her wrath would never extend to _that_ portion of his body, but he knew better than to test his luck.

Too busy clutching his face, he didn't actually s_ee_ anything. He did however hear something being slid across the floor, and a slight bump as it collided with his futon. He felt a gentle thud as something hit the floor by him, likely upon whatever had collided with his own futon, and he felt a slight rush of cold air as a whooshing sound briefly filled the night. It was another handful of seconds before he removed his hands. "What the-?!"

The thing that collided with his futon...was another futon. They'd been pushed closely together, almost appearing like a singular large futon, except for the two blankets shattering the illusion. Both blankets were currently in use, one by him, one by-"Yo-you're kidding me, right?" Taiga's eyes narrowed. Nope, she wasn't. It would be pointless and painful to resist. He sighed. "Fine."

He settled into his own futon once more, turning on his side so his back was to Taiga. "Night." He closed his eyes. He'd worry about this...never. Never sounded good. It'd just be yet another odd occasion in a long list of odd occasions with Taiga (and he knew the list was only going to get longer). Now it was back to dreams of-

Wait, scratch that. He heard a brief rustling. Great, so Taiga couldn't keep still in her sleep. Well there went his chances of a good nights-It happened again. He shifted his head against his pillow, trying to lose himself in the comfort of the fabric. Another rustling came, except it lasted slightly longer, and...it was closer?

Was she-no, there had to be a mistake. He blinked a few times, forcing himself to listen. He waited and his patience was quickly rewarded. She **was** shifting closer to him! He blinked slowly, fortunate for the fact his face was facing away from Taiga. She'd have probably hit him for the look expressing his current level of annoyance. She did it again. This time she'd reached the border between the futons, and he decided it was time to act.

"What is it?"

"You're warm."

He eyes narrowed from sheer frustration. "You're gonna complain about _that_ now too?"

She moved again, but this time she didn't bother being subtle, she moved across the futons and under the blankets so that her shoulder was all but pressing up against him.

He gave an annoyed shake of his head, and closed his eyes again. Well now that was dealt with he could finally get some sleep. Now maybe he could get back to that dream of-oh for the love of God!

"Hey, dog."

He couldn't hide the annoyance in his voice. "What _now_?"

"Your back is to me. I don't like it. I don't want you rolling over and flattening me. Turn around."

He groaned, quickly shifting his body around, but paused before he finished taking a position. He quickly settled, now pretty much resting on one arm, and his other resting on his side. Well this sucked.

"You don't look comfortable."

"Well what do you expect? You're in the only place I could move my arms to! If I moved them now I'd be practically hugging you!"

She looked him in the eye for a moment, before she blinked slowly and, "Fine."

Now it was his turn to blink, from shock. "Eh?"

For such an _interesting_ topic Taiga was very composed about it. He'd seen her more shocked over the topic of food. "Hugging makes people warmer, right?" Ryuuji didn't answer, he was the shocked one. An anger mark made a home above Taiga's right eye. "Just do it, stupid dog."

This time he didn't bother hiding his annoyance, but found himself with some excess luck as she didn't actually hit him. He met her eyes. "Will you let me sleep if I do?" She nodded slightly. "Fine. Back up a bit will ya?" She nodded again, before shifting her body away from him. He moved himself closer at the same time, and they came to stop near the center of the futon pair, each body on one side.

He stretched out his arms, taking a second to consider how to do this. He reached an arm under her, and she lifted herself briefly to accommodate the passing limb. She rested herself upon it, and Ryuuji found her to be very light. He reached his other arm over her, resting it near her shoulder. She was so small, so light, and so fragile-looking..._"She really is like a doll."_

With his work complete he looked her in the eye again. "Why I do hang out with you, exactly?"

Her answer was given as nonchalantly as most any other. "To get with Minorin. Just like I put up with you to get with Kitamura."

"Oh, yeah."

Silence fell. They still held eye contact, but It felt awkward now, though neither was sure why. Taiga looked away from Ryuuji as she broke it.

"...and you're a good dog, even if stupid."

With that the awkwardness was gone.

"Heh. Thank you, _master_." He chuckled briefly, before he shifted himself against his pillow again, though through Taiga's efforts to find warmth, her hair had ended up all over both pillows, and now he found himself resting on a mixture of pillow and hair, though her hair was actually even softer than the pillow. He shifted his head once more, satisfied. "Goodnight, Taiga." His eyes closed, Taiga turning to watch him as they did.

Ryuuji was still awake for a short while, but became steadily less aware of the world around him. The feeling of such softness under him made sleep so alluring, and there was a nice sweet smell in the air now. The feeling of something close by to hold onto, it was like being a kid with a stuffed toy, but different, better even. Soon sleep came for him. Now it was back to dreams of...actually he'd forgotten what he'd been dreaming of now. In the last instant he was awake his mind hazily took notice of one last thing.

This was...kinda nice. With that thought, he fell asleep.

Taiga watched and heard as Ryuuji's breathing gradually changed, he was definitely asleep now, but there was one thing of a little interest to her.

He was smiling.

She looked at the arms around her and took note of her current position. Well this was a better than the cold, but It could still be better, she was sure. The question was how. She blinked, thinking, and decided to try something. She shifted, just a bit, moving closer to him than she already was. It was a little warmer. "Hm?" Ryuuji's arms were moving, and she watched, mostly disinterested as they adjusted to her new position. It was just like they were before, except now she was even closer to Ryuuji.

Interestingly, this was even better. It was warmer, and actually a little more comfortable somehow. Well moving had worked once...

She moved closer to him.

His arms clasped tighter around her.

She repeated her motion, getting closer. As did his arms, becoming tighter around her. She moved closer and closer, repeating the process, and slightly lowering her form until her head was just under his, and she was all but imprisoned by Ryuuji's oddly inviting embrace. She was very warm now, and it really was very comfy. She nodded slightly to herself, satisfied with her new sleeping spot. Her eyes turned upwards to her 'dog'. "Goodnight, Ryuuji."

Though she couldn't see his face clearly from her position, she knew he was still sleeping with a smile.

Soon she was too.


End file.
